Congressman Bacon Says His Emails Were Hacked in Campaign Linked To China

US Representative Don Bacon said he is among those whose emails were hacked in an espionage campaign that Microsoft has attributed to China. From a report:Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska and a strong advocate for US military support to Taiwan, posted on social media that the FBI had notified him that the Chinese Communist Party hacked into his personal and campaign emails over the course of a month, from May 15 to June 16. "The CCP hackers utilized a vulnerability in the Microsoft software, and this was not due to 'user error,'" he wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Bacon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, received an email from Microsoft indicating he may have been hacked and advising him to change his password on June 16, according to Maggie Sayers, Bacon's press secretary. She said that following subsequent notification from the FBI that he had been hacked, Bacon determined emails relating to political strategy, fundraising and personal banking information may have been breached. As a former US Air Force intelligence officer, he is careful to avoid writing sensitive emails relating to China and Taiwan, she said.

Sus

[Stonent1]

"received an email from Microsoft indicating he may have been hacked and advising him to change his password on June 16" Please log in to Mcriosoft.com/totally-legit-password-reset/ to change your password.

Re:Sus

[gweihir]

Actually MS had a secret cloud key with wayyyy too many privileges stolen (because they are both incompetent and do not really care) and this may well be legit. The massive security disaster that MS had here is pretty staggering. It basically means they are not fit to operate a cloud securely.

Reference (one of many):
https://www.bleepingcomputer.c... [bleepingcomputer.com]

Re:

[shmlco]

On the flip side, I have the misfortune to have this individual as my congress-critter and like most of his brethren, I've noticed that he'll say anything he thinks we gain attention... or that he thinks will back some wonderfu" piece of legislation designed to "protect" us...

Re:

[gweihir]

Just because he is right about this thing does not mean he is right about anything else. But I like being honest in calling people out and when a person of , ahem, "low quality" does something right by accident, it just reduces your credibility criticizing them for it.

Re: Sus

[RightwingNutjob]

My Congresscritters behave similarly. They just happen to have a different letter after their names, and their smug sense of superiority points in a slightly different direction but I can assure you it is of equal magnitude and equally stupid.

Government is a magnet for sociopaths, control freaks, grandstanders, and crooks. Always has been, always will be. The incredible wisdom of our founders was that they knew this, and instead of going all out to get in on the ground floor, they decided to limit the power of their government so that they could line their pockets "honestly" in the private sector instead.

That's American Exceptionalism: taking human greed, and through the pursuit of that greed, miraculously setting up a system that channels it in a direction where it's not only mostly harmless, but in some aspects mildly beneficial.

Re:

[muh_freeze_peach]

miraculously setting up a system that channels it in a direction where it's not only mostly harmless, but in some aspects mildly beneficial.

Source?

Too much pork in DC

[e065c8515d206cb0e190]

When even Congressmen are called bacon

Re:

[Opportunist]

Probably all over some other senator's face.

Re: Too much pork in DC

[RightwingNutjob]

s/senator/intern/

Re:

[Pascoea]

So that must mean they finished analyzing Hunter Biden's laptop? Phew. Only took 3 years. Can't wait to read the "bombshell report" about it. Clown.

Re:

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

Yeah, it's cool that a leader's personal and campaign emails were hacked. There's no way that could lead to extortion or election manipulation.

Thank goodness, though

[myowntrueself]

Thank goodness they weren't hacked in a campaign linked to the USA!
Oh... wait...

Yay for paywalls!

[Pascoea]

I assume ./ editors are paid a commission for referrals to these paywalled sites? Since they are too lazy to do their jobs: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/15... [cnn.com]

I don't know his party or his predilections, but

[93 Escort Wagon]

Somehow I feel a compulsion to fully support any Congressman possessing the name "Bacon".

Re:

[iAmWaySmarterThanYou]

Oink!

And?

[Anonymous Coward]

Email is essentially the postcards of the digital world. Any time you send one, whatever you wrote is readable by all the delivery points in between, and the path traveled can be counterintuitive. If you don't want your messages on a postcard read, encrypt it. The encrypted string will still be readable by all delivery points, but your message contents are secure until better computers show up. If you don't want people knowing who you are communicating with, then don't use email.

China hacks GOP emails to find their exact price.

[Eunomion]

Probably be easier to just hack Russian emails, since Moscow already knows a Republican's price.

User error

[kmoser]

"The CCP hackers utilized a vulnerability in the Microsoft software, and this was not due to 'user error,'"

Wrong. The user's error in this case was using Microsoft software to begin with.